LePage '47 percent' comment drawing controversy

Comment made at private fundraiser and recorded

Gov. Paul LePage is making national headlines with a comment he apparently made at a private fundraiser in Falmouth last week.

On an audio recording, the governor said, "About 47 percent of able-bodied people in the state of Maine don't work."

Liberal blogger Mike Tipping posted the audio.

There are two ways the LePage may have arrived at the number. One involves an inaccurate interpretation of data. The other lumps infants and the elderly into the group LePage said should be going to work every day.

The governor’s office said LePage got 47 percent by totaling figures from a report by the conservative Maine Heritage Policy Center, but those numbers don’t add up.

The statistics are from different years, involve percentages of households and individual, don’t take into account overlap among the groups and don’t account for the fact that many people on public assistance work.

Dividing the total number of working Mainers by the state’s population also comes close to 47 percent, but that would mean the governor is including infants and the elderly as able-bodied people.

“His remark was kind of insulting and rude,” said Susan McFarland of Looking for Work.

McFarland, a Windham resident, lost her job two months ago.

“I may have only been doing this for a few weeks, but I’ve been working really hard to try to get out there and get back and work for me, my family, the community,” McFarland said.

LePage’s remark was strikingly similar to Mitt Romney’s 47 percent gaffe last year during the presidential campaign. He told supporters that 47 percent of the people won't vote for him because they are people who feel that they are entitled to government assistance.

"My job is not to worry about those people," Romney said. "I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

University of Southern Maine political science professor Ron Schmidt said the remark won’t be a game-changer in the race for governor.

“No, I think we’re looking pretty much at the same game,” Schmidt said. “The governor’s base of support really has always been a minority of the electorate, but one that’s very committed both to his particular view of politics and of Maine and of his refusal to back down from it, no matter what.”

Maine's labor department says about 65 percent of Mainers ages 16 and older are employed or unemployed and seeking work.

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